


Electric Sheep

by Ceares



Category: TV Commercials
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-19
Updated: 2009-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-04 15:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceares/pseuds/Ceares
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>There were a lot of stories about Flo in my head. This is the one that beat the others back. I don't know if it's quite what you had in mind, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.  Immeasurable thanks to Lisa for audiencing and to Keiko Kirin and Kaizoku for the speedy betas and wonderful notes.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Electric Sheep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brigid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brigid/gifts).



> There were a lot of stories about Flo in my head. This is the one that beat the others back. I don't know if it's quite what you had in mind, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless. Immeasurable thanks to Lisa for audiencing and to Keiko Kirin and Kaizoku for the speedy betas and wonderful notes.

  
It started with the commercials. Before that, Flo was exactly like the rest of the models. That was the point, since they were literally cast from the same mold. All the Flos, Berts, Steves and Sallys were from the Super 60's collection.  Progressive picked them to be the face of their  stores--perfect, perky and  pristine--uniform.  That's how it stayed, until the cameras came.

She doesn't know if there was a strategy or if their store was chosen at random--chance entering into things for the first time. She does know that having the cameras on them changes them. The observer effect in action. Flo  can't say when she started to feel different--when she started to _feel_ at all. But one day, when she smiled at a customer, it was real.

She notices changes in the others too. Steve leans casually against the counters sometimes and Sally chews gum. Bert actually drinks the coffee that sits around as atmosphere. After the name tag incident, the others start to notice. They are already known as the 'commercial store four' among the employees. The other units picked up the moniker as well, but now there is no indulgence in the title. It's said with disdain and maybe some fear. When they are around, it's like the other units take two steps back.

Flo's been asked out by customers before and she's always followed one of the carefully written scripts they've all been programmed with. The one's that all say 'thank you, but no' in various ways--appropriate to the characteristics of the person asking. She doesn't know what it is about Chad that  makes her say yes when he comes back into the store again, except he makes her want to smile when she's around him and the sensation lingers even after he leaves.

Flirting mildly with the customers  is overlooked, considered part of the sales pitch, but actually accepting a date with Chad is different. It's not _forbidden_ exactly. None of the little ways they deviate from 'normal' behavior are. They're not given a list of rules to follow because no one thought it was necessary. What they are, what their purpose is, it's built into their programming. Interacting with customers is fine but this crosses an invisible line. That she doesn't care is another symptom, Flo supposes, of whatever has corrupted them.

*********

  
Flo's never been on a motorcycle, but she imagines what it's like from the first time she sells the insurance, to an older couple who can't wipe the smiles off their faces as they tell her how it's a retirement dream. She means it when she tells her next customer he smells like open air and freedom. She picks up oil and leather, grass and rain, smoke and ten other scents.She accesses the sense memory often. Sniffing the customers isn't exactly in any of the sales handbooks they're programmed with--but he grins and nods and buys.

When she flirts with Chad, she doesn't even think. The v-900 twin pops out of her mouth straight from her fantasies. 'Yes!' pops out too, when he asks her if she wants to meet for coffee Saturday, then 'oh crap!'. Chad's eyebrows raise at that and Flo thinks  she might need to get some duct tape before anything else pops out.

She smiles a little frantically and leans back against the shelf. "That has nothing to do with you! I just have a thing. But not on Saturday! Saturday is great." And she's a little nervous--it's not in their programming and she doesn't know how to process it. But rule ten is 'smile,smile,smile' so she does.  What she _can_ process though, is that she now actually has to _get_ a motorcycle.

They get paid for the commercials--money that goes mostly for mods and repairs and is shared with the units that work in the regular stores. So she can't buy one, but she cheats and hacks into the computer at the Kawasaki store and sets up a complimentary weekend rental.  She falls in love when she goes to pick it up. It's sleek and metallic lime green and chrome with a twenty one inch cast front wheel. She spends five minutes just sitting on it in wonder.

They are made to adapt and it doesn't take her long to learn to ride. In an hour, she's good enough to convince Chad she knows what she's doing.

**********

  
The others are watching her get ready. As usual they keep their distance except for her group, who sit in close. They watch avidly as she does her make up and fixes her hair. Flo thinks their eyes are wistful, and she wonders how soon it will be before they follow her example.

Bert leans in close to her, nearly whispering. "Are you going to tell him?"

"We're not supposed to!" It's not possible for there to be an actual pigment change to their skin but if it were, Betty would have gone white.

Steve rolls his eyes at Betty. "We're not supposed to date them either, but that's not stopping our little Rebel without a Cause here." They are programmed with all the pop culture material available for the past one hundred and fifty years but Steve has a fondness for the fifties.

Flo hasn't thought about it. The rest of it is overwhelming enough. Besides, how do you tell somebody that you're something out of a science fiction movie?  They were told that most humans would be afraid of them, or treat them like freaks or slaves. It's why even the commercial crew doesn't know that they aren't human. A member of the Progressive team acts as go between and they are well trained to never let anything slip.

Betty, Bert and Steve start to quietly bicker about it, and every argument is a logical one. Their programming makes sure of that. Flo tries to tune them out, but once it's out there, she can't get it out of her head. Having eidetic memory is great for sales but a pain in the keister right now. The entire conversation from earlier repeats verbatim in her head while she is waiting on Chad. If they have a prime directive it's 'tell no one'--and now she's considering telling Chad. Deliberately.

**********

They meet at a coffee shop close to the Progressive store.  After ordering something very sweet and creamy, Flo finally gets the coffee thing that has Bert so enthralled. They are programmed to sell--to read body language, pick up on hints that people don't even know they are leaving--but this time she's the product and it's harder than she ever imagined. She's made a little game out of matching people up that come in the store--the truck driver and the soccer mom, the guy short on money and the friend he sold his watch to, she's even suggested this very coffee shop to some of them--but she never thought of what it was like for them.

She wonders now, how many of them felt this way, had this odd bubbling joy when they sat across from each other talking. And she never loses her smile the whole hour they are there. Chad doesn't either and when he suggests they go get something to eat, she agrees. She decided though, somewhere between the story he tells of his dad teaching him to ride, and the 'crazy' customer tales she recalls that she's going to tell him. She wants to give him stories that belong to her, not other people.

  
**********

  
"You're a what? "

"A cyborg. Like the Terminator, but with less killing."

Chad still looks confused. "So you're a robot?"

Flo shakes her head. "Part mechanical, part organic--human. Stylish yet efficient, like one of those cool hybrids."  He's silent long enough that Flo starts to think she's made a terrible mistake. She thinks all the dire warnings were right and she shouldn't have said anything, then he shrugs.

"Well, I have a pin in my elbow. That's sort of the same, right?"

She knows then why Chad is worth this. "Right."

He smiles at her and leans in and kisses her. His lips are soft against hers and his mouth minty and clean tasting. It only lasts a moment before he pulls away.

"Ready?"

Flo nods and slips on her helmet.  In a moment, the throb of the bike vibrates through her bones/wiring. She can feel the sensation of the night air against her skin--it's not cold to her, but she imagines it is and that's enough.


End file.
